What I'm reading today so far:

• Terry Kindlon's op-ed at Common Dreams criticizing Kathleen Parker's column in which she opined that the British shouldn't have sent a female sailor to war.

• Larissa at Raw Story reporting on the alleged human trafficking of Indian guest workers at a Mississippi shipyard.

• Scribe's diary on Karl Rove and the missing e-mails.

• Avedon Carol on Kurt Vonnegut and all her posts linking to what others are writing. Sideshow is where I go to catch up with the daily blogosphere.

CBS reports on the looming April 15 tax deadline. Yes, immigrants who are in the U.S. without proper documentation also pay taxes.

In 2005, the IRS received almost 8 million W-2 forms that didn't match social security numbers. It is believed that the majority of these, coming from Texas, California, Florida and Illinois which have large immigrant populations, represented wages earned by the undocumented.

You don't need a Social Security number to file tax returns. All you need is a TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number.)

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Seven batches of new documents were released today in the U.S. Attorney firing scandal. They are available here at the House Judiciary Committee.

Analysis is taking place in the comments at TPM Muckraker.

Let me join the chorus of praise for Sam Seder of Air America. His daily show ends today and he now starts a weekly Sunday show.

I had the privilege of being a guest on Sam's previous show Majority Report to discuss issues like torture and, the Roberts and Alito Supreme Court nominations. Sam always got it.

Be sure to listen to Sam's new program. It is sure to be among the best political radio out there.

Previously I wrote that Barack Obama had not done an interview with Fox.

I was wrong, as Greg Sargent reports:

we checked in with the Obama campaign. They told us that, yes, it was an interview:

It was with Fox alone -- he did a series of interviews with cable and broadcast networks following McCain’s mention of him in his Iraq speech.

Now, does this mean Obama broke a pledge of a Fox "freezeout" as Matt Stoller charged? I don't know. I'll try and find out.

This is a preemptive post, because I am positive that the defenders of those Presidential candidates who do not endorse Reid-Feingold will trot out the same critiques about the NOT funding the Debacle approach that was used when Feingold first proposed his Not Funding plan in January. To wit, we don't have the votes, McConnell will filibuster, Bush will veto. My response remains

I ask for three things: First, announce NOW that the Democratic Congress will NOT fund the Iraq Debacle after a date certain. You pick the date. Whatever works politically. If October 2007 is the date Dems can agree to, then let it be then. If March 2008, then let that be the date; Second, spend the year reminding the President and the American People every day that Democrats will not fund the war past the date certain; Third, do NOT fund the Iraq Debacle PAST the date certain.

Some argue we will never have the votes for this. That McConnell will filibuster, that Bush will veto. To them I say I KNOW. But filbustering and vetoing does not fund the Iraq Debacle. Let me repeat, to end the war in Iraq, the Democratic Congress does not have to pass a single bill; they need only NOT pass bills that fund the Iraq Debacle.

But but but, defund the whole government? Defund the whole military? What if Bush does not pull out the troops? First, no, not defund the government, defund the Iraq Debacle. If the Republicans choose to shut down government in order to force the continuation of the Iraq Debacle, do not give in. Fight the political fight. We'll win. Second, defund the military? See answer to number one. Third, well, if you tell the American People what is coming for a year, and that Bush is on notice, that i t will be Bush abandoning the troops in Iraq, we can win that political battle too.

Georgia10 asks why the Democratic Presidential candidates, who all proclaim a desire to end the Iraq Debacle, are not supporting the Reid-Feingold bill. She discusses Barack Obama in particular, but it applies to ALL the candidates except Senator Chris Dodd (who I am supporting):

To Obama (and Clinton, Biden, and Edwards, [and Richardson, Kucinich, Gravel] for that matter), I ask this: how can we believe you words, your claims that you are the president who will end this war, when you refuse to take the one step that best evidences your dedication to that cause? Either you want the war to end in March 2008 (as so many of their bills claim), or you don't. It is fundamentally inconsistent--and frankly, disrespectful to the American voter--to on the one hand boldly proclaim that it should be the policy of the United States to have all or most troops out of Iraq by March 2008, but then refuse to sign on to legislation that would truly effectuate that policy.

Hear, hear! Hurray for Georgia and the other daily kos FPers who are speaking up on this. Oh by the way, where is Move On and the rest of the Netroots on this? I hear crickets.

Hurray also to Jerome Armstrong, who adds great political analysis on how Obama is putting himself in a corner.

Through a Freedom of Information Act request, the ACLU has obtained hundreds of files on damage claims brought by family members of civilians killed or injured by Coalition Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yesterday, it released the files.

The files made public today are claims submitted to the U.S. Foreign Claims Commissions by surviving Iraqi and Afghan family members of civilians said to have been killed or injured or to have suffered property damages due to actions by Coalition Forces. The ACLU released a total of 496 files: 479 from Iraq and 17 from Afghanistan.

You can view the files here.

Some of the stories that show the human cost of war -- and the toll on innocent civilians:

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Here are Paul Wolfowitz' remarks at the World Bank Forum yesterday. He eats some crow and admits making a mistake in pushing the promotion and giving of a huge pay raise to his girlfriend.

In hindsight, I wish I had trusted my original instincts and kept myself out of the negotiations. I made a mistake for which I am sorry.

But let me also ask for some understanding. Not only was this a painful personal dilemma, but I had to deal with it when I was new to this institution, and I was trying to navigate in uncharted waters. The situation was unprecedented and exceptional. This was an involuntary reassignment, and I believed there was a legal risk to the institution if it was not solved by mutual agreement. I take full responsibility for the details of the agreement, and I did not attempt to hide my actions or to make anyone else responsible.

He may be fired, forced to resign or just severely rebuked.

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This is not to be believed:

Now that Democrats are also demanding access to the political e-mail, the White House took steps on Thursday to use those latest demands as leverage to force Democrats to accept the White House’s conditions for making Mr. Rove and the others available.

In a letter to Mr. Leahy and Representative John Conyers Jr., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Mr. Fielding, the White House counsel, said the administration was prepared to produce e-mail from the national committee, but only as part of a “carefully and thoughtfully considered package of accommodations” — in other words, only as part of the offer for Mr. Rove and the others to appear in private.

Mr. Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, issued a tart reply: “The White House position seems to be that executive privilege not only applies in the Oval Office, but to the R.N.C. as well. There is absolutely no basis in law or fact for such a claim.”

Send good thoughts to New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine. He was critically injured (but expected to live) following a car accident tonight while his motorcade was en route to a meeting between Don Imus and the Rutgers' womens basketball team.

Corzine had a broken sternum, a broken collarbone, a slight fracture of his lower vertebrae, a broken left leg and six broken ribs on each side, Ross said. He also had a laceration on his head, Ross said.

State Senate President Richard Codey will take over as acting Governor while Gov. Corzine is in the hospital.

My friend Ed Kilgore writes an interesting piece that is marred by one of the sillier pieces of poliitical analysis I have seen in a while:

When you boil it all down, our last two presidential nominees, Al Gore and John Kerry, were rich in policy proposals and Shrumian "fighting" rhetoric, but largely bereft of any overarching message (Gore, to be more precise, had several messages, but couldn't settle on one for any length of time). Nobody needs Bob Shrum any more to convey an intention to "fight" Republicans. Obama is all message (the same message of beyond-polarization and reform that John Kerry rejected and Wesley Clark botched in 2004), and part of his early appeal is that he scratches a long-standing itch among message-starved Democratic and independent voters. It also enables him to simultaneously run to the left and right of his main rivals.

You see what Kilgore is saying? Kerry (and Gore I guess) lost because of rejection of the DLC message of "beyond polarization and reform." To which I say hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! You must be joking. Kerry lost because he was viewed as not standing for anything. "Voted for it before I voted against it defined Kerry."